The Beatles

The Beatles was a rock band formed in the sixties. All members originated from Liverpool, England. Having sold over 250 million records, they are viewed as one of the most influential rock bands of their time and brought about ‘Beatlemania’ the first example of pop artists amassing dedicated fans. With John Lennon on the guitar, Paul McCartney on the bass, George Harrison on the lead guitar and Ringo Starr on the drums, they innovated popular music like no other band ever had before. The whole band sang intricate harmonies and melodies, however, Lennon and McCartney sung lead. The two built a strong songwriting partnership over the years (one which is lauded today) and were credited most of the royalties during the group's successful career. In 1962, they were signed to Parlophone (subdivision of EMI). The Beatles’ first album titled Please Please Me was number one for 29 weeks in the UK. Their second album With the Beatles also went straight to number one in the charts in the United Kingdom. The US market started to pick up on them not long after and they reached the billboard hot 100 charts with the singles “I Wanna Hold your Hand”. Both albums combined ended up dominating the charts for 51 weeks in a row. In 1964, the band released both A Hard Day’s Night(soundtrack to the movie) and Beatles for Sale album within the same year. A year later, the band released another Soundtrack album to accompany their movie Help! featuring the song “Yesterday” which was a number one. The Beatles released their sixth album entitled Rubber Soul at the end of 1965 which demonstrated the band’s writing and musical abilities and which is often viewed as one of the best albums ever made. In 1966, the band topped the charts with their psychedelic rock album Revolver. In 1967 the band released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which is perceived as one of History's most important albums. In 1968, Yellow Submarine was released as an animated movie and seven months later, as an album.. The hit song “Hey Jude” was released 3 months before “The White Album” was released through the band’s own label called Apple. The album topped the charts yet again. In 1969, the band recorded their album Let It Be. During this period of time, the band began falling apart and performed for the last time on the rooftop of their music studio. Being unable to resolve their conflicts, The Beatles decided to postpone Let It Be and instead worked on and released the album Abbey Road which became one of the most successful popular albums they released. Let It Be was released in 1970 accompanied by a documentary. By this release, both McCartney and Lennon had begun working on solo projects and the band broke up a month prior to Let It Be coming out. In 1980, John Lennon was assassinated outside of his home in New York City by Mark David Chapman and George Harrison died of Cancer in 2001. He was in Los Angeles at the time. The Beatles are remembered as musical innovators .